AS sun returns late this afternoon (January 20) it’s hard to imagine that only a few hours ago Canberra was under assault from a roaring thunderstorm of dangerous and damaging hail and rain.

Hailstones were reported as being between the size of grapes and golf balls as houses and cars across the city were thumped by them.

“I’ve never known a thunderstorm to last so long; it seemed to go, then roared back,” bemoaned one inner-south victim.

The ESA hotline was inundated with hundreds and hundreds (1200 by mid afternoon) of cries for help as the forecasted storm drew a diagonal line across the city from Belconnen to the Parliamentary Triangle. Kings Avenue looked like a war zone with fallen foliage littering the boulevard and at least the side of one glassed bus shelter smashed.

Cars in the triangle’s open car parks were battered and, as the photos from one worker shows, her Parkes office window was peppered with holes from the furious hail.

The danger has now passed Canberra and the storms, according the BOM radar, appear to have headed out to sea.